Instructions
The Adult Drug Court program offers cognitive-based, outpatient counseling and drug monitoring of offenders who are diagnosed with a moderate to severe substance use disorder. The offenders must be convicted of drug offenses or offenses motivated by their drug use. Participant compliance in the program is monitored regularly by the drug court team. The team consists of the judge, public defender, probation officer, and counselors. Participants are randomly drug tested on a frequent basis and they must participate in substance use disorder treatment, as determined by their licensed counselor. Because this population often has varied treatment needs, they are often referred to additional services such as residential treatment, Medically-Assisted Treatment (MAT), cognitive intervention classes, and individual counseling sessions.
Over the past 5 years, the drug court success rate has continued to drop. This year, the success rate is at 38 percent. The program is facing several challenges:
- High rate of probationers who never report to their assigned drug court probation officer.
- High rearrests rate while in treatment.
- Continuance of illegal drug use while in the program.
- Participants do not take full advantage of residential treatment in the community.
You are meeting with the senior court and officials to discuss the issues the court is facing. After the meeting, you are tasked with developing issue statements. An example of an issue statement is the following:
Issue Statements
(Consider issue/trend; how its moving; and the impact on customers.)
Over the past 5 years, the percent of probationers supervised has increased by 18 percent. Probationers increased risk and complex needs (e.g., mental illness, chemical dependency) combined with an ever-changing external environment (e.g., recreational marijuana bill; new criminal presiding judge) requires an evolving skillset staffs need to affect long-term, prosocial behavior change; if not addressed, this will result in:
- Increased recidivism;
- Increased risk to staff safety;
- Decrease in positive behavior change;
- Diminished ability to decrease victimization; and
- Decline in the ability to meet customer expectations to reduce crime.
Please develop issue statements focused on the problems that the drug court is facing.
Length: 2 pages
References: 2-4
